The widow and the orphan went daily to weep by her tomb. Many of her
faithful friends continued to make visits to the last resting-place
of her whose memory was honored by universal respect and sincere
mourning. The poor and the rich alike honored her life and mourned
her death. “What now remains to Josephine is the recollection of her
good deeds,”—a more fitting memorial than costly monument or marble
sarcophagus of most elaborate art.
As an empress, none can claim a more exalted place, as the
personification of grace, beauty, and queenly dignity. But it is as a
_woman_—as a _wife_ and a _mother_—that the brightest halo of glory
crowns the pure brow of Josephine; and as _Love’s Martyr_, she has
gained the highest place amongst the self-sacrificing women of historic
fame.